Malcolm Tent is the owner of the unusual store on Mill Plain Road and said Trash American Style houses a little bit of everything.

From hardcore records and homemade leather bondage vests to Nag Champa incense and beaded purses, Trash has stuff to please almost anybody.

Well, except your average cookie-cutter Joe.

"Its typically those that are dissatisfied with what they are being spoon-fed culturally. They are the ones going to the mall, looking for something, and just not able to find it," Tent, 40, said. "Most people that come in have really good taste and a cutting-edge attitude."

And that's what inspired Tent to create the store in the first place.

He was just that kind of person 18 years ago and so was his wife, Kathy Kelly.

"We were still rebellious snot-nosed kids," he said.

They were living in Florida and absolutely hated it.

"Florida is about the worst place on the face of the earth," Tent said.

To escape their misery, the couple hopped in a jeep and came to Connecticut, Kelly's home state.

"Then we panicked," he said. "We were like OK, we are here. Now what?"

He wasn't about to take on a typical office job.

"I couldn't work with some schmuck in a suit and tie telling me what to do," he said. "I could not survive that terrible menial drudgery."

Instead, he and his wife decided to sell all of their worldly possessions.

Well at least some of their favorites.

On Nov. 29, 1986, the couple opened a store in Brookfield.

"I call it my Independence day," Tent said.

For sale? His records and her wardrobe.

They printed up about 10,000 flyers and hit the streets with them.

At the time, the straight edge hardcore scene was starting to pop up in Danbury and kids were looking for a place that suited their anti-mainstream mentality.

Trash American Style became that place.

Because it not only sold odd items, but bought them too, the 293-square-foot store was soon filled to overflowing.

They found a new home on Mill Plain Road in Danbury, where they have been for the past 15 years.

The new store is still overflowing, and is more than four times the size of the old one. And Tent has never once had to punch a clock.

Thankfully, Tent said, the Danbury area has embraced the eclectic store, and the customer base has stayed strong.

Matthew Wick, 22, has been going to the store for years, and spends every Thursday digging through the records at Trash.

"I can find almost anything here," he said. "And if not, Malcolm tries to help me find it."

Jenny Sellars, of Danbury, remembers the store when it first moved. The 34-year-old has bought and sold a ton of things over the past 15 years.

"I like looking at all of the little treasures Kathy finds," she said. "Her and Malcolm are really great people."

Tent said all types of people and things roll through the door.

"We have people from 8 to 80 years old," he said. "And they trade in the most oddest of things."

Like the homemade bondage vest somebody traded for some albums, or the Elvis decanter a local DJ traded for records.

"I wont take terrible, hideous top 40 junk," he said. "Only the best for my buyers."

And don't try to unload your spring cleaning junk on him either.

"Someone tried to sell me a stove once," he said. "I was like 'Um no.'"

People who trade-in items are one of Tent's favorite part of the running Trash.

"You never know what is going to walk through the door," he said. "Its like constant discovery."

Tent couldn't have pictured doing anything else with his life and said he has not had a single regret. He would love to have been in a full-time band and toured the country, "making a god awful racket," but knew he couldn't make a living at that.

"So this is my consolation prize and I am loving every second of it."

While his life is always chaotic between running the store, playing in a band, promoting shows and traveling, that's the way he likes it.

"I haven't been bored in 18 years and I do not miss it one bit," he said. "This is what I am going to do until I'm like 80 and tired. Maybe then I will play an acoustic guitar and sit on the corner with a cup."

But for now he said he's going to keep playing with Trash.

And he thinks more people should realize there is more out there than punching a clock.

"I always tell people, find your art, be prepared to bleed for it and then make a living out of it."